Just One More Thing: Lady In Waiting

Notes and screenshots for Lady In Waiting: Originally broadcast on December 15 1971, starring Susan Clark as the tightly-wound Beth Chadwick, Richard Anderson as her controlling older brother, Leslie Nielsen as the well-meaning boyfriend and, of course, Peter Falk as Columbo.

Listen to the original podcast episode here:

Episode 30: I Get Paid Not To Count with special guests Daniel Kibblesmith and Jennifer Wright

Lady in Waiting
Season 1, Episode 5

Director: Norman Lloyd
Writers: Steven Bochco, Barney Slater

I know we discussed it at length in the podcast, but it’s worth looking at the screencaps (above) side-by-side of Susan Clark as Beth Chadwick, reclining in bed before the murder and before Columbo closes the case against her, respectively. Everything from the pose to the clothes to having the bedsheets tucked up firmly against Beth-the-mouse’s chest and scattered casually around the feet of Beth-the-lion. Replacing the box of bon bons with scattered papers and dense, butterflied-tomes is a particularly keen change.

We also could have discussed the two scenes with Nielsen and Falk a little more, they play off of each other terrifically. Nielsen’s Peter Hamilton seems to consider Columbo an amusing curiosity, like a particularly precocious (but not particularly threatening) child, and both the scenes at the burger joint and the bar are worth watching in isolation. 

It’s a shame we don’t get a glimmer of what happens to Hamilton, a character who is at worst condescending and at best is legitimately attempting to help his fiancee manage her public image. I think it’s likely that he knows, on some level, that feeding additional information to Columbo at the bar will result in Beth’s conviction, although perhaps he’s counting on leniency or an insanity plea to keep her out of actual jail. It’s true, too, that we never see any character showing any particular grief over Beth’s brother’s death - even his mother seems more insulted than grieving. 

A seriously good episode, this one, well worth watching if you haven’t seen it before.